KUALA LUMPUR (Sept 11): Never waste a crisis. This is AirAsia Group Bhd founder Tan Sri Tony Fernandes’ constant reminder to the budget airline’s staff as the Covid-19 pandemic forced the group to leverage the power of its media ecosystem while the aviation industry contends with the impact of the pandemic.

In a statement today, AirAsia announced the consolidation of its media solutions, which encompass ad tech, content and media-related offerings, under AirAsia Media Group. 

"Tony, our founder, always reminds us to never waste a crisis,” AirAsia Media Group CEO Sumit Ramchandani said in the statement.

In the statement, AirAsia said AirAsia Media Group will play an integral role in the airline’s fully integrated travel and lifestyle ecosystem-building efforts. 

"By leveraging AirAsia’s extensive range of omnichannel media assets and rich first-party database, the media group is able to engage consumers at every touchpoint and provide targeted media solutions to brands, through its proprietary self-service ad tech platform or managed service,” AirAsia said.

At Bursa Malaysia’s 12:30pm break today, AirAsia’s share price settled up 0.5 sen or 0.79% at 63.5 sen, which gives the company a market capitalisation of RM2.12 billion.

The stock saw 6.51 million shares traded.